PARIS — The SAD 17 board of directors was told at its meeting Monday night that Chromebooks may be the way to go to offer a successful, but less expensive laptop program at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

The recommendation by district Technology Director Mike Dunn to buy Chromebooks to replace the MacBook Air laptops students are using must also be recommended by the Finance Committee, and then approved by the board and OK’d by town meeting voters as part of the fiscal 2018 school budget process.

Last May, directors voted to continue the 12-year-old statewide computer program at the middle school for the next four years but agreed to look at the high school program, which bought into the state contract a few years ago, when the contract ends next year.

School officials believe they can run their own less-expensive laptop program at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

The total four-year cost of continuing with the MacBook Air program is about $1.2 million versus a three-year Chromebook program that would cost $417,690. The Chromebook program does not include the cost of wireless and professional development that the current program does.

Dunn said the cost-effective Chromebook is a Google-designed “browser in a box” that looks like a regular laptop and has many of the features of a laptop including keyboard, screen, wireless, camera, microphone, speakers, USB ports, handicapped accessibility and the ability to run some specialized apps such as state assessments. It would meet educators’ goals of providing as good or better service to students, staff and taxpayers than the current laptop program.

The cost of a Chromebook is between $150 and $1,500. Dunn said he is looking at units that cost about $300. MacBook Airs cost $750 each and a change to Windows laptops could cost between $200 and $2,000 per unit, not including servers, licenses and anti-virus software

Dunn said the Chromebooks are being used successfully in many high schools including those in Portland, Biddeford and Scarborough.

While a few directors questioned the ability of the Chromebooks to handle visual presentations, such as movie-making, that some students do in school, Dunn said those needs could be handled perhaps through other means such as saving some of the MacBooks, especially if the district chose to buy them at a bargain rate of $48 per unit and resell them to help finance the new program.

The Finance Committee will look at the recommendation and return to the board of directors with its own recommendation.

In other news, directors:

* Accepted a $10,000 grant from the Max William Beck Memorial Fund to the Otisfield of Maine Community Foundation for the Otisfield Community School Book Closet Fund.

* Approved the superintendent’s nomination of Dana Dudley as grade six math/science teacher at Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway.

* Approved a resolution to lease/purchase two school buses in the principal amount of $145,969. The purchase is part of the district’s annual lease program.

* Designated Oxford Elementary School and Guy E. Rowe School as Community Schools. The designation will enable the schools to provide coordinated comprehensive social services using a community grant offered by the Department of Education.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net